Whey Protein Concentrate
You are standing in your local health food store; glasses perched on your nose, trying to read the tiny print on all of those containers of protein supplement powders. You keep seeing the words ‘whey protein concentrate’ and ‘whey protein isolate.’ You are getting a headache. Is it the whey protein isolate that you need, or the whey protein concentrate, and what about the powders that seems to have both?
First, let’s note the difference between whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate. Whey protein isolate is the purest form of whey protein. It also has the least amount of fat and lactose. Whey protein concentrate, of course, is the exact opposite. It has less actual whey protein, and more fat and lactose.
You will immediately reach for the whey protein isolate powder…if you can find one among these hundreds of powders. You will also immediately notice a great price difference. Before you pay that higher price though, there are some things to consider.
You naturally assume that the whey protein isolate is better than the whey protein concentrate, because it is purer. Theoretically, this is correct. But you also need to hear some first person accounts on the results of the two different whey protein products.
Believe it or not, most bodybuilders will go with a protein supplement powder that has a combination of whey protein isolate and whey protein concentrate. Most will choose the one that has a higher level of whey protein concentrate than the whey protein isolate.
If whey protein isolate is better, however, why would they do this? They choose this type of product because they have tried the pure whey protein isolate products, and paid that extra money for the pure product, only to find that the results were about the same. Now, note that the results are not the same if you use a whey protein concentrate that does not also contain whey protein isolate. But if there is a combination of whey protein concentrate with the whey protein isolate, you will still get good results, and you can pocket that extra money.
With that said, however, there are a couple of reasons why you might want to choose the higher priced whey protein isolate. If you have trouble keeping your weight down, you want the whey protein isolate, instead of the whey protein concentrate, because of the lower fat content. Also, if you are lactose intolerant, you will want the whey protein isolate for the lower lactose content.
If neither of these conditions exist, however, you will do just fine with a protein powder supplement that contains both whey protein isolate and whey protein concentrate, even if there is more of the whey protein concentrate than the whey protein isolate.
